Businesses: professionals, services and appointment diary — Salon-style booking, free

Mainly for: Business

If you run an appointment business (hair salon, barber, beauty centre, physiotherapy, clinic, classes…), on Apoing your customers choose what they want, with whom and at what time, and the appointment takes exactly the time it needs. You see everything in a diary per professional and can book whoever calls or walks in within seconds. It is free.

1. Create your business

1. In Communities › Create community, under “What kind of community is it?”, choose Business. We will call your members customers.
2. Under “What kind of business is it?” choose yours (hair salon, beauty centre, physiotherapy…) so that people looking for, say, a hair salon nearby can find you.
3. For Access, a business usually chooses Open: anyone can join and book straight away.

2. One calendar per professional

Each person who serves customers (stylist, physio, teacher…) is a calendar. In Manage › Manage calendars (in the app, Calendars), create or edit one and under “What is it?” choose Professional. Their section appears:

• Photo: saved straight away. Customers see it when booking and on the public page.
• Presentation: one line about their speciality (“Colour specialist, 10 years' experience”).
• Their Apoing account: if the person is a member of the business, choose them and they will see and manage their own diary from the website and the app (only theirs): create, move and cancel their appointments (notifying the customer), use their held slots and fixed holds, close their day and see who is waiting for them on the waiting list. They don't see other people's diaries or Manage. If you don't want them to manage their diary, remove the link to their account.

The calendar's schedule is that person's working hours, and the length of each slot (for example, 30 minutes) is the unit in which the diary is filled. A calendar that is not “Professional” (a treatment room, a studio) works as always.

3. Services and extras

In Manage › Services you add what your customers book:

• Service: what is booked (Women's cut, 45 min, €18). You can set a “from” price, a category, a description and a buffer after to tidy up or prepare (it is booked but the customer doesn't see it).
• Extra: added to a service, adding time and price (Colour, +45 min, +€25; Hair mask, +15 min, +€8).
• Who does it?: tick the professionals who do each service. If someone takes longer or charges differently (a senior stylist), enter their length or price on their row.
• The arrows change the order in which your customers see them. Removing a service does not change the appointments that already have it.

The price is for information: the customer sees it when booking and pays at the business.

Questions when booking (optional, at the end of the same screen): what you want to know before the appointment (“Is it your first time?”, “Are you bringing a reference photo?”) or a text the customer must accept, such as consent for a treatment. Each question can be free text, yes or no, or to accept; required or not; for every appointment or just one service, and only the first time they book. If you ask about health (allergies, pregnancy…), it is specially protected data: ask only what is essential.

4. How your customers book

1. In Book they choose the professional (with their photo) or I don't mind.
2. They choose the service and, if they want, extras. They see the total time and price.
3. Only the times where the whole appointment fits stay green: a 90-minute appointment with 30-minute slots takes three slots in a row. The rest show “Doesn't fit”.
4. They can leave a note (“I will bring a photo”), answer your questions if you have set any, and confirm. The appointment appears in My bookings with its services, where they can change it (they pick another time and the old one is cancelled automatically) or later book it again.

If there is more than one professional, they can choose I don't mind: they see the gaps of every professional who does that service and the appointment goes to one of them (with an account, to whoever has the fewest appointments that day; without an account, to the first one free at that time).

5. The business diary (front desk)

When you sign in to Apoing on the web, whoever runs a business goes straight to their Diary. If you also belong to other communities, you go to the Diary when the last one you used was the business; otherwise, to Home.

At the top of the Diary, the To do strip reminds you of what shouldn't be forgotten: today's appointments, reviews to reply, requests to join, appointments to approve, who is on today's waiting list and appointments to rearrange. Tap each one to go to its screen.

Whoever runs the business, whoever has the Manage bookings role and each professional (only their own) see two tabs in Book: Diary and Book. In the app, in Manage › Diary or with the Diary button in Book.

• On the front-desk computer or tablet you see everyone in columns; with the chips at the top, just one. On the phone, one at a time.
• Each appointment shows the time, the customer, the services and the note.
• New appointment: tap a free slot and, in the same panel, (1) the service, (2) the customer and (3) Save. For the customer you can search (name, phone or email), enter just a name (whoever walks in now; no record is kept) or create a new customer with a name and phone or email, even if they don't use Apoing.
• Tap an appointment to see the answers to your questions, call, open WhatsApp, move it (tap the new slot, also with another professional) or cancel it. When you change the day or time, or cancel it, we notify the customer with a single message (before and now, or the reason): in the app if they have an account, or by email if they are a customer without an account with an email. If you only have their name, the Diary reminds you to call them.
• If the customer doesn't turn up, on that appointment (once it has started) tap No-show: it is marked in red and counts on their card. If you made a mistake, They came removes it. With the No-show rule on, customers with an account can be sanctioned; customers without an account, never.

Appointment waiting list

Turn it on in Manage › Services (the same in the app). If there is no time left on a day for what they want, the customer taps Waiting list (in Book or in “Book without an account”), chooses the day, whether morning, afternoon or any time suits them better, and their professional or anyone. When they join they see their number (“You are number 3”).

• In turns: when time frees up that day and their whole appointment fits (an appointment is cancelled or moved, you release a held slot, remove a fixed hold or reopen a closure), we keep that time for 15 minutes for the first person on the list and notify them. They confirm it with a button. If they don't confirm in time or say “I don't want this time”, it goes to the next.
• If the time is less than 2 hours away, there is no time for turns: we notify everyone at once and the first to book it gets it.
• Customers with an account are notified in the app (and by email according to their preferences); customers without an account by email, with the link to see their place or leave the list.
• In the Diary, the Waiting list button shows how many are waiting that day and who, in order, with what they want, their phone and whose turn it is now. You can call them yourself or remove someone. The kept time shows as Kept.
• Each person can be on at most 3 of your business's lists at once. Anyone who already has an appointment that day leaves the list automatically, and the data is deleted 30 days after the requested day.

Held slot

To block a free slot: tap it in the Diary and, in the appointment window, choose Block. If you write a note you will see it on the slot; only the business sees it. That one slot is blocked; for longer, repeat it or use Fixed holds.

When you move an appointment we ask what to do with the slot it leaves: release it (anyone can book it) or hold it. Hold it if you are going to call another customer to put them there: meanwhile nobody can book it on the web, the app or as a guest. On a computer you can also drag the appointment with the mouse to a free or held slot: we ask you to confirm and the same question about the slot it leaves. From an appointment, Record opens the customer record.

• In the Diary it shows striped, as Held. Tap it and choose Put an appointment here, Move another appointment here, Release it or Keep it held.
• While moving an appointment, you can also tap a held slot directly as the destination.
• The slot is swapped for the appointment in one step: there is no moment when it is free.

Fixed holds

If you want to always keep some hours held (for walk-in customers, to have some margin…), tap Fixed holds in the Diary bar (in the app, the calendar icon with arrows). Choose the professional, the days of the week and the hours, for example “Saturdays 10:00–12:00”, and optionally a note (only you see it).

• Those hours are held automatically every week, before customers can see that day. Customers only see them as taken; they don't see the note.
• It only affects that professional and those hours; the rest of their diary stays free.
• In the Diary they show as Held: use them (new appointment or move another one) or release them whenever you like. A day you release is not held again.
• If you remove the fixed hold, the held hours you had not used become free again.

Close a day (unexpected)

If you can't open one day, or you'll be away for a few hours, tap Close a day in the Diary bar (in the app, the door icon). Choose the day, all day or only some hours, who is away and, optionally, the reason, and tap Close and block:

• The free hours are blocked straight away: nobody can book in that time, with or without an account.
• A red strip at the top shows the closure and how many appointments are left to rearrange. Those appointments show in red.
• Tap one: we suggest the first free gaps where it fits (with the same professional and, if not, another one). When you pick one, the appointment is moved and we notify the customer of the new time. You can also move it by hand or cancel it (the closure reason is already filled in).
• The slot each appointment leaves stays closed: even while you move appointments, nobody can take it.
• If you end up opening, tap Reopen on the strip: the blocked hours are free again (appointments are not touched).

6. Reminders

Turn on the Reminder rule in Manage › Automatic rules (for example, 24 hours before). It reaches your customers with an account (email and app notification) and, by email, customers without an account who have an email (those you add yourself and those who book without an account).

By WhatsApp, free: in the Diary, tap Reminders. You get tomorrow's (or today's) appointments with the message already written (“Hi Carmen, a reminder of your appointment tomorrow at 10:00…”). Tap WhatsApp on each one: your WhatsApp opens (on a computer, WhatsApp Web or the app) with the customer's chat; send it and go on to the next. It goes from your number and the customer replies to you. The ones already sent are marked. For the button to show, the customer needs a phone: customers without an account give it when you add them; those with an account, if they share it in their profile or if you note it on their card.

Come-back reminder (Pro): on each service you can set a Come-back reminder in weeks (for example, 5 for a haircut). If 5 weeks go by after the appointment and the customer hasn't booked another, they get a notice (in the app and by email) to book the next one. Only for customers with an account who are still in your business, once per appointment, between 10:00 and 20:00, and never if you marked “Didn't come”. Each customer can turn it off in their profile (Notifications › “Time to come back”). While the Pro plan is free, every business has it.

Appointments that already got the reminder by app or email appear in green, marked Notified. Held slots are not listed.

7. Your customers and their data

Coming from another app or keeping your customers in a spreadsheet? In Manage › Import customers upload the file (spreadsheet or CSV; if you come from another booking app, export your customers there). We match the name, surname, phone, email and notes columns automatically; you can change them. Tap Check (nothing is saved) and then Import: those you already had (same phone or email) are not duplicated. You can also import upcoming appointments (date, time, professional, service and customer), as long as the professionals and services already exist in Apoing with the same name. There is a template to download.

In Manage › Customers (in the app, Manage › Members) you have all your customers: those with an account and, in the No account tab, those you added at the front desk. You can also search them by phone. Each one's card has their upcoming appointments and their history with the services, no-shows and answers to your questions, and a note (“dye 6.1”, “prefers afternoons”). On the card of a customer without an account you can edit their name, phone and email, call them or message them on WhatsApp, and delete the record (their appointments stay in the diary, with just the name).

Photos: on each customer's card you can keep photos (the result of a colour, a reference cut) with a note. From a phone, take the photo directly. Only the people who manage appointments in your business see them; ask the customer before taking a photo. They are deleted after 2 years.

If a customer without an account signs up to Apoing with the same email, their card tells you: tap Link with their account and their appointments, note and no-shows move to their account; from then on they see their appointments in the app and get the notices.

Loyalty card (Pro · free for now): the reward is just text, so you apply the discount or gift when charging. In Manage › Services, turn on the card and choose how many appointments are needed and the reward (for example, 10 appointments → 50% off the next cut). Each appointment done adds a stamp (no-shows don't), counting from when you turn it on. The customer sees their stamps in My bookings; when they complete them, their card shows Redeem reward: tap it when you give it and the card starts again. It also works for customers without an account.

Business report (Pro): in Manage › Statistics and report, Usage tab, the Your business block for the dates you choose: appointments done and upcoming, estimated income and average ticket (the price of the services of the appointments done, without no-shows; it is a guide, Apoing does not charge for appointments), no-show rate, new and returning customers, how many appointments the customer booked themselves, and a table per professional (with their review average) and another per service. Also in the app. Download appointments (Excel) gives you those appointments with date, time, professional, customer, services, status and expected amount; no-shows have no amount. It is a guide and does not work as an invoice. You download it from the website and it is free.

You are the controller of your customers' data in Apoing (name, phone, email, services, notes, no-shows and answers to your questions) and Apoing processes it on your behalf. In the first reminder to a customer without an account we explain who you are and how to ask for their data to be deleted. Customers without an account are deleted automatically after 2 years without appointments, and the answers to your questions 2 years after each appointment. Don't write health details you don't need in the notes.

8. Reviews

Thirty minutes after each appointment we ask the customer with an account to rate it: they get a phone notification and it also goes to their Notices list, with the Rate button (on Pro, if they have not rated it, a last phone notification the next day). When rating, they see the professional's photo (if there is one). They give stars for the professional (required) and, if they wish, for the business, with a text. Only people who had the appointment can review it, up to 60 days later, and they can change it for 30 days or delete it. In My bookings they have the “Rate your appointments” card, which shows until when each one can be rated (“You can rate it until…”) and has “No, thanks” so it doesn't come up again.

• Averages show when booking (next to each professional) and on your public page, with the latest reviews.
• In Manage › Reviews you see them all, the averages of the business and of each professional, and you can reply (the reply shows under the review).
• You cannot delete or change them (whoever wrote one can change it for 30 days or delete it). If one breaks the rules (insults, other people's data, advertising…), tap Report: with 3 reports it is hidden until we review it.
• They are published with the first name and the initial of the surname (“Lucía M.”); if the person deletes their account, they show as “Customer”. Appointments marked “No-show” do not ask for a review.
• They are turned on for businesses; you can turn them off on the same screen.

9. Get found

• Appointments without an account (optional, in Manage › Services): your public page will have a “Book without an account” button. The customer picks the service, professional and time, leaves their name, email and phone, and gets the appointment by email with a link to cancel it. To prevent abuse there is a captcha and each person can have at most 2 upcoming appointments. Share the link shown when you turn it on on your Instagram or WhatsApp. The days and times that can be booked follow your Booking rules (maximum and minimum notice), just as for customers with an account; without a maximum notice, they can book for the next 14 days, and always at least one hour ahead.
• Appear in the Apoing search (Edit community): yes by default. If you untick it, you won't show up when searching or in “near me”, but your customers can still join with your link, your QR code or your public page.
• Turn on the public page (Edit community): it shows your professionals with their photo, presentation and services, and has the button to join.
• Google Maps tip: in your Google Business Profile, under Booking link (or “Appointments”), enter the address of your Apoing public page. Google's booking button will take your customers to Apoing.
• Print the QR poster (Manage) for the counter or the shop window.
• Business directory (apoing.com/en/businesses): anyone, without an account, searches by type of business (hair salon, beauty, physiotherapy…) and city or “near me”, and can choose a day and time to see who has a free slot (“Free at 10:30”). Results show as a list and on a map. Each card has Book, See business and, if you show your address, Directions.
• To appear in the business directory you need: the public page turned on, your city filled in, and “Appear in the search” not unticked. Your page is at apoing.com/business/your-business-name.
• Try it before you start: at apoing.com/business-demo you see at the same time how a customer books and how you see it in the Diary, without creating anything.